March 2011

03/31/2011

During a period spanning over two decades, Gary Leon Ridgway murdered over 70 women--all prostitutes--in King County, Washington State. He deposited the bodies of several of his early victims in the Green River, earning himself the moniker "The Green River Killer." Ridgway's preferred modus operandi was to seek out these women for "dates" (the street-wise term for transactions between prostitutes and their Johns), have sex, strangle his victim, and then dump their body in nearby woods, rivers and roadways. Ridgway was indiscriminate in his choice of victim and killing location. Disturbingly, he often returned to the scene of his crimes for necrophilia. When he was ultimately captured, Ridgway's killing spree had already consumed the lives of not only his victims but countless law enforcement officials, journalists, and community activists. Ridgway pled guilty to the murder of at least 48 persons in return for no-death penalty. He is currently serving a life sentence (actually 48 life sentences, consecutively) without the possibility of parole or early release in a Washington State prison.

Mark Prothero was one of Ridgway's defense attorneys and in Defending Gary offers a first-hand and unvarnished account of Ridgway's capture, interrogation, plea, sentencing, and imprisonment. What is evident is that Ridgway was a sociopath and a pathalogical liar and riddled with contradictions. And though Ridgway comes across as remorseful (eventually), he nevertheless shows a weakness for vanity, rationalization and self destruction. Prothero's profile of Ridgway, his crimes and interrogation is riveting. It beggars the imagination that people like Ridgway live among us.

I was prompted to read this book out of personal interest. I lived in King County Washington for nearly 10 years and recall vividly the day Ridgway was captured, the media coverage, and watching his sentencing on television. Ridgway's saga still continues to haunt the region.

03/26/2011

Good book, especially if you have any interest in the history of American business and labor.

Hershey bars, Corning glassware, Kohler bathroom fixtures, Maytag washers, Spam—each is the signature product of a company town in which one business, for better or worse, exercised a grip over the population. In The Company Town, Hardy Green, who has covered American business for over a decade, covers the emergence of these communities and their role in shaping the American economy, beginning in the country’s earliest years.

From the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the R&D labs of Corning, New York; from the coal mines of Ludlow, Colorado, to corporate campuses of today’s major tech companies: America has been uniquely open to the development of the single-company community. But rather than adhering to a uniform blueprint, American company towns represent two very different strands of capitalism. One--"Utopia"-- is socially benign—a paternalistic ideal that fosters the development of schools, hospitals, parks, and desirable housing for its workers. The other, which Green calls “Exploitationville,” focuses only on profits, at the expense of employees’ well-being.

Green's book includes richly detailed stories about town-builders and workers, and he vividly describes the origins of America’s company towns, the living and working conditions that characterize them, and the violent, sometimes fatal labor confrontations that have punctuated their existence. Also included are are fascinating profiles of American moguls—from candyman Milton Hershey and steel man Elbert H. Gary to oil tycoon Frank Phillips and Manhattan Project czar General Leslie B. Groves. My favorite chapters covered the company (and government) towns that sprung up during World War II.

03/13/2011

Most baseball fans acknowledge Jackie Robinson's entry into and the breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 as a tremendous and long overdue milestone. And truly it was. Unfortunately, many fans (and non-fans too) regard Jackie's achievement as not only breaking the color barrier but in fact ending racism in baseball also. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Some of the greatest black players to follow Robinson--Willie Mays, Elston Howard, Bob Gibson, Roy Campanella, Lary Doby, Curt Flood, Henry Aaron and others sufferred unthinkable rascism in professional baseball long after Robinson had hung up his spikes for the last time. Aaron, perhaps like none of the others of his time, suffered remarkably so, largely because he had the ability and power to challenge and eclipse baseball's great white icon George Herman "Babe" Ruth. As Aaron neared and surpassed Ruth's all-time home run record he suffered unbelievable pressure and endured a barrage of hate mail and death threats from narrow-minded bigots who clearly misunderstood one of the singular precepts of the game: that when a player steps onto the field success has nothing to do with the color of his skin or the town or country where he he grew up. But, April 8, 1974, the night when Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record would hold only bittersweet memories for him. "What should have been the best time of my life was the worst," he once said, "all because I was a black man. Something was taken from me I've never gotten back."

Despite this, throughout his career Aaron remained a consummate professional--humble, resilient, fiercely competitive and proud of his heritage and accomplishments. Even so, he was to a certain degree misunderstood, if only because the environment in which he grew up and played ball taught him to carry a certain reserve, to keep his own counsel, and trust his own judgments rather than those of others. As Bryant reminds us, Aaron was not the darling of the media. He was not hostile; but he did not suffer fools, bigots or slights on account of his race or accomplishments lightly. To me, what makes Aaron remarkable--besides his home run record, which I consider the true home run record before doping became commonplace--is that not only was he a great ballplayer but that he was a great ballplayer in the most hostile of circumstances.

03/08/2011

Though they hit the Big Screen long before I was ever born, many of Humphrey Bogart's films are among my favorites: Key Largo, Casablanca, The African Queen. He just personified cool. Kanfer's Tough Without a Gun covers the whole of Bogart's life with ample attention to his most famous roles, including those of husband and father. A very enjoyable read.

03/06/2011

This sequel to Turow's Presumed Innocent (http://tinyurl.com/4fmznhh) was over 20 years in the making and it's just as good, if not slightly better. Innocent is set in 2008, 22 years after the events of the earlier book. Rusty Sabich is now a chief appellate judge and in trouble again. His nut-job wife, Barbara, who figures prominently in Presumed Innocent (no spoilers here!), dies in her bed of what appear to be natural causes, yet gradually Sabich comes under scrutiny and is eventually indicted on suspicion of murder. The plot and characters are again expertly developed. By the time I got to the trial (where Rusty is again prosecuted by Tommy Molto and defended by Sandy Stern) I couldn't put the book down.

Only one complaint. The truth about who murdered Carolyn Polhemus in Presumed Innocent is never fully addressed in Innocent, which may leave you a bit unfulfilled. Carolyn's murder is omnipresent throughout Rusty's latest trial, but justice on this score is never served. I understand Turow did so for a reason; he didn't want to cheat readers out of the pleasure of reading his first book. Still though, to me it left a very important component of Rusty's story in Innocent untold.

03/04/2011

I stumbled on a great Web site worth checking out: www.headbutler.com. Great book, music, and movie reviews. Head Butler is run by Jesse Kornbluth, a former magazine journalist. This from the Web site's "About" page:

"I'm Jesse Kornbluth, and I'd like to be your Head Butler --- your cultural concierge.

"I'm no snootball, looking down my nose at everything that's popular. And I'm not a professional critic; if I don't like something, I'd rather pretend it doesn't exist than tell you why it sucks. I see myself as an advocate --- on HeadButler.com, my aim is to write relentlessly positive takes on New Stuff that's actually exciting and Great Stuff that's been overlooked.

"Why listen to me? Because I've been tracking down and writing about quality culture for decades. I think I know what great books, movies and music are. For those who like to see a track record, here's my bio, in brief:

"As a magazine journalist, I've been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York, Architectural Digest, Reader’s Digest, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Departures, and a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, etc.

"As an author, my books include Airborne: The Triumph and Struggle of Michael Jordan; Highly Confident: The Crime and Punishment of Michael Milken; Pre-Pop Warhol and The Other Guy Blinked (with Roger Enrico). I recently worked with Twyla Tharp on The Collaborative Habit.

"On the Web, I co-founded www.bookreporter.com, now the hub of the Internet's most successful non-commercial book network. From 1997 to 2002, I was Editorial Director of America Online.

"In 2004, I launched HeadButler.com. My mission: to guide smart, busy people through the thicket of mediocre New Stuff and into the clearing of Great Stuff. For instance: You like Van Morrison. But do you know about the masterpiece that is Van's four-decades-old Astral Weeks? Or: you loved "Silence of the Lambs". Maybe you'd be just as scared by a 1952 novel called The Killer Inside Me. Do you like romantic comedies? Well, have you seen a '30s classic called Love Me Tonight?

"My bet is that this Great Old Stuff --- plus the Great New Stuff I love --- is what bright, curious people really want. So I'll let everyone else tell you about Dan Brown, Sean Hannity, Mitch Albom, thrillers that look like video games and high school comedies that could have been written by high schoolers. I'll skip the over-hyped new releases you read about five minutes ago and won't care about five minutes from now. Instead, I'll tell you about books, films and music you might cherish for the rest of your life.

"Here's what you can expect from Head Butler:

Four days a week, I'll share a favorite from the best of the new or from the backlist: books I've read (and re-read), music that stays in the rotation for me, movies I can watch again and again.

Gift recommendations for any occasion for even the hard-to-please.

The occasional recommendation of a product, short takes, and more.

"If you'll spend some time with the books, movies, music and the occasional product that I recommend, I think you'll save time and money --- and, very quickly, you'll find you're the smartest, most wide-awake person on your block. And in return? Your thanks will suffice. Really. And perhaps a few weeks of holiday in August and another at Christmas. But enough of me talking about myself. Time to help you. I hope the service will be satisfactory."